Week of 3/27

Wow, y’all. I hope you took some time this weekend to savor last week’s victory stopping ACA repeal. This process showed the fault lines in the Republican power structure, and with your energy and efforts we as a movement were able to preserve health insurance for millions of Americans, including between 20,000 and 50,000 right here in the 21st district. And though this is likely not the last threat to the ACA from this administration and Congress, this victory has established early on that Trump is not the unstoppable juggernaut he has portrayed himself as, and has made a number of other Republican initiatives, such as tax reform, that more difficult both politically and procedurally. So kudos to all of you!

Now it’s time for us all to get back to work. The Gorsuch nomination is in process, there are new questions about Trump’s ties to Russia, and the Internet is under attack, in addition to a number of state legislature issues.

Upcoming Events

We have added a calendar to our website to make it easier to track what is going on – it is an embedded Google calendar, so you should be able to set it up to sync with whatever calendaring program you use.

Sunday 4/2 – We have our all-district meeting in San Marcos next weekend on Sunday, April 2! This is an excellent chance to meet some of your fellow TX21Indivisbles, hear about where the group is at, and help us figure out our direction forward. Please join us!

Tuesday, 4/11 – We will be hosting a citizen-sponsored town hall for Lamar Smith in San Antonio at Bigz Burgerz on the evening of April 11. If you are interested in helping out, then please contact us at volunteer@tx21indivisible.us.

Thursday, 4/13 – We will be hosting another citizen-sponsored town hall for Lamar Smith in Austin at the Scoot Inn on the evening of April 13. If you are interested in helping out, then please contact us at volunteer@tx21indivisible.us.

Actions

In addition to these federal actions, we HIGHLY encourage you to take a look at Indivisible TX Lege’s weekly actions here. There are a number of critical issues before the state legislature affecting the our schools, redistricting, and our state’s economic success.

Monday

Protect the Supreme Court for decades to come: no cloture on #SupremelyExtreme Gorsuch. Last week’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on Neil Gorsuch were more of the same for the Trump administration: an extreme nominee attempting to defend his record of standing with corporate power instead of the American people. To ensure Gorsuch doesn’t roll back civil rights, women’s rights, labor rights, and many other rights for years to come, we need the Senate to show some serious spine.

The important vote for Gorsuch is the “cloture” vote. Voting for “cloture” means voting to cut off debate and end a filibuster. This vote requires 60 votes to succeed, which means Senate Republicans CAN’T win this on their own—they don’t have enough votes. Ask your Senator (regardless of party) to vote “NO on cloture” for Gorsuch—check out our newly updated script on this here.

Tuesday

Keep the pressure on Congress to force the release of Trump’s tax returns. On Tuesday at 4 p.m., the House Ways and Means Committee will hold a markup on H.Res. 186, a Resolution of Inquiry directing the Secretary of the Treasury to provide the House of Representatives with Trump’s tax returns. Tell Lamar Smith to cosponsor this resolution: here’s the script.

Wednesday

Protect Americans’ privacy from corporate greed. Last week, while many of us were focused on defending health care, Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans passed S.J. Res. 34 on a narrow, party-line vote. This bill would block the Federal Communications Commission from regulating large internet service providers (think Comcast) in their efforts to sell the troves of information they gather about you without your consent. The House is poised to vote on this measure, H.J. Res. 86, this week. Call Lamar Smith and tell him to protect your privacy and side with ordinary people over powerful corporate interests. Here’s the script.

Thursday

Shed some sunlight on Trump’s Russia ties. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) thinks he can get away with moving hearings behind closed doors. It’s clear that he can’t be trusted to lead an unbiased investigation. Tell your MoCs that it’s time to take Nunes off the case and put the investigation in the hands of a nonpartisan, independent commission, in full view of the American people.

Tell Lamar Smith to cosponsor H.R. 356, the Protecting our Democracy Act, which would create a special commission to investigate Russian interference into our elections.

Tell John Cornyn and Ted Cruz to cosponsor S. 27, which would similarly create an independent commission to investigate Russian interference in our democratic institutions.

Friday

This is a good day to call about any of the above actions that fell through the cracks this week!